John Polanyi · Science & Medicine
Chemist known for reaction dynamics and chemiluminescence; Nobel Prize 1986
1929, Berlin, Germany
Canada (Toronto) · United Kingdom
John Polanyi is recognized among Jewish contributors to Science & Medicine — Chemist known for reaction dynamics and chemiluminescence; Nobel Prize 1986
Origins and early life
John Charles Polanyi was born in Berlin on 23 January 1929, into the Hungarian Polányi family — his father Michael was a chemist who became a philosopher of science, his uncle Karl the economist who wrote against market society, his brother George its defender; the Polanyis were non-observant Jews. The family left Germany in 1933 for Britain, and he was educated at Manchester, taking his doctorate in 1952 on the strength of chemical bonds, then doing postdoctoral work at Canada's National Research Council.
Work and career
He wanted to know what actually happens during the instant of a chemical reaction. His answer was to listen to it: molecules leaving a reaction carry away energy as vibration, and that vibration is emitted as faint infrared light. By measuring that glow — infrared chemiluminescence — he could read the energy distribution of newly born molecules and so reconstruct the mechanics of the reaction itself. The technique underlies the chemical laser.
He shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1986, and has argued publicly for arms control and for the freedom of scientific inquiry.
Verify and go deeper with these external references.
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Chemistry
This page is published in seven languages from an English source. The translations are reviewed, but a mistake can still slip through. If you spot one on this profile — a wrong word, a lost date, a sentence that says something the English does not — please tell us.
Chemist known for reaction dynamics and chemiluminescence; Nobel Prize 1986
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Chemistry
